Category Archives: Publishing

For those of us that are lucky enough to work from home each day, the management of our time is crucial in order to keep the income flowing. One of the great things you take away from the freedom of being in your own business is that freedom.

One of the definitions of freedom is being able to do what you wish, but that isn’t always the case when you operate a business on the home front. Major distractions come along to ruin tasks through the week that had to be completed. Maybe a disruption of some kind happened during one day with a freak thunderstorm knocking out power service in your area causing havoc on projects planned for that day. You know the drill. That work has to be made up, adding to your workload.

Making a Project List The Night Before

No matter who we are, a good idea to keep in mind is going over what must be done the next business day and developing a list. This is important because it prevents us from having so much on our minds to try to remember.

Instead of waking on the next day thinking back on what has to get done, we can jump on the list with the morning coffee. Work seems to be easier to do with a pre-made list from the night before. Instead of forgetting to complete a task, we know everything on the list will be done as we check off on each assignment.

Remember this, operating a business huge or small has to have time management. They will be times when social media is a no-no. They will be other times when multitasking has to be done. In fact, they are times when we all want to take a much-needed break but the workload just won’t allow it.

Abilities To work from Anywhere

With today’s technologies, we CAN work from just about any location that we please. The great thing about this is that we are no longer limited to a business location, home or office.

You can work from a chair on the beach with a portable fully charged laptop and that handy cell phone while sipping a drink. A hotel room taking a mini-vacation doesn’t necessarily mean that work is off limits. If your business requires you to work while away, then so be it.

Many take frequent trips to get away from it all but in reality; their business goes right along with them. They wake in the mornings and go back to work if something has to be completed by a scheduled time. No matter where you are, business can be performed in some nature.

How I Manage Time

Have you ever heard the phrase, “There is just not enough time in the day to do all that I have to do?” I have heard it out of many others. They make excuses for why they can’t accomplish things because they have no idea how to manage time.

My workweek generally starts on Sunday night when I make that next day’s list to be completed. Typically, my day starts around 8:30 in the mornings averaging into late at night. During the day, I might have to do the “honey list” also in-between work but that is part of family, and it is a necessary part of it. Before the day ends, that list has been completed, hers and mine.

Before leaving my desk, a list is drawn up for the following day on what has to be completed, and it is the same routine the next day. I usually work six days a week, but sometimes I have a chance to take a weekday off to be with the family.

Many times, I’m not at home when at work. I may be off on a leisure trip or getaway to relax in another location, but all the work with business still gets accomplished. You can make time either work in your advantage or let time be your worse enemy.

In conclusion, I want you to ask yourself one question if you operate a business for yourself. “How do I manage my time?” You might find that time is being wasted in a technological age where it shouldn’t happen.

(I know many have waited awhile to read “Part 3” of this article series. Too much work and not much rest have taken a toll on me lately so I decided to take a break from working for others during the summer months. I will spend more time devoted to other areas while vacationing some while the weather is great.)
Key-Word Management because Key Words are King

Meta-data, search engine optimization, algorithms and key word placement can be overwhelming to a writer. What is it that Authors can do to get their books seen by more eyes? The answer is adding more power to your books!

Well, books are not selling like I thought they would BM. It is frustrating to me to continue to write them with lack of sales. I seem like I’m getting nowhere.

Remember where it tells you to add 7 keywords that relate to your book on the Amazon book upload page?

You can make that work for your book(s) in your favor. All you have to do is this. Instead of typing in as an example for a kinky romance novel type book; love, lust, sex, romance, cheating, date, etc. on those seven keywords with commas, cluster them together like this; (Remember to use commas)
love lust sex romance cheating date etc,
“Add next keywords or phrase,”
“Add next keyword or phrase,”
and continue this process until you have seven keywords or phrases separated by commas.

You can also research other categories that your book could be listed in and add them into the keywords separated by commas. This will give you more than the two categories that show up that your book is generally listed in. Try it on just one book and wait a day or so and check the results. You should find out that the book is showing up in more categories and might be in the top 100 paid sales in some of those categories.

The real key to doing this successfully is by taking the time to doing great research to achieve the required results. You might have a great reading novel that has limited sales because readers can’t find your book under the multitudes of books on the website. That is your fault because you can correct it to improve your books visibility by doing a one-time process here. Of course, once you see that it works, you might find yourself going in there to tweak the books again to get more and better results.

Adding keyword phrases instead of using one keyword separated by a comma gives you additional opportunity for readers to find your book(s). A non-fiction book on photography and using a Nikon camera could include a few key word phrases such as, “Using artificial light with a Nikon camera, taking photographs with a tripod, making images of people in cities and tourists areas, taking beautiful pictures while on vacation at the beach and mountains, learning to make tact sharp images using a tripod with a camera, using Nikon cameras and equipment to become a professional wedding photographer, photography mastery by learning how to use all the camera settings on a dslr camera.”

That is seven key word phrases above with loads of power to help people find that book on photography. Much better than Nikon, camera, equipment, tripod, photography, images, photographs.

You could research book categories on Amazon and substitute a few of those word phrases with extra categories to get the book into more book categories in Amazon. There is a tremendous opportunity to improve the success of you books if you only take the time to do it properly. Amazon doesn’t have a specific tool to check keywords but it does have an auto-populate tool that enables you to see a drop-down of specific words or phrases. Use it during research to get good results. Just make sure all of this is associated within the contents of your book because you surely wont like your book showing up under a wrong category.
Writing a Book Series that Sells

Every Author or Writer is different. They have different likes and tastes on just about everything and hardly ever will two of them agree. Strange but true as the world continues to turn. What works for one might not necessarily work for another but usually out of several successful strategies, one of them will work for you.

The key is finding which one will work for you to produce the best results. You have to hook them with good bait. That bait is a great reading first book in a series that you give away as a loss leader. That first perma-free book is a loss for you because you had to spend many hours writing it. That first book you make no money on is the one that draws readers into “your world.” They read your free book and they begin to like you. Next thing you know, hundreds like your book. Soon thousands like you and want more books to read but this time they will pay to read your books. That is when you realize that free pays because you are making money.

Once you have a series going, then doing the next one is easier because you have a successful system in place and the reader fan base that will automatically chase after it. People in marketing that are trying to create passive income just don’t realize the tremendous opportunities in Indie publishing. After all, it is passive income and as long as you continue to write, publish and repeat, the income is there.

Oh, I wish I had the talent to write fiction but I don’t. It is a gift to those that can. I call it that because many just can’t sit and dream these wonderful stories up in their heads and put them on paper for others to read. For those Authors that can produce books so quickly from these thoughts and dreams in their heads, it is indeed a gift from a higher power.
Write What You Would Love To Read

Writers worry about what is selling the best to write instead of what they should be writing. Spending your time producing a product that really isn’t what you want to produce will certainly show up in future results. Time can never be recovered so invest your time wisely in producing the kind of books that you actually want to read. Everyone has certain talents for many different things. Just because a book or book series is number one doesn’t mean you need to write a book containing the same subject matter to produce your own acquired results.

Write from your own heart and soul. Pour it out on paper or the keyboard. You have to love what you are writing or you will be doomed to failure. This has to be repeated because it is powerful, “Write from your heart and soul.” If you do this, then only good things will happen for you. You think of some of the great Authors from the past and do you honestly believe that they found the way by copying others? No.

Writing what you would love to read is also giving readers something different and unique because you are unlike anyone else writing. You have your own way of creating a story so don’t let “doing it to make money” be the reason why you are writing.
Create Stories for Books That Haven’t Been Told

How many books seem to wander down the same road with the same kinds of characters, plots, endings and more of the same mediocre drama with only a different flavor to it. You might be the one that creates the next best selling book series by being unique and inventive in what you’re writing about and the character(s) you create.

Superman was created. So was Dracula. Hunger Games came out of the imagination of a writer. How many vampire or super hero books are on the market today? How many books are being written similar to Hunger Games? How many romance novels are on the market today? Think about these types of things when you are busy researching what you believe would be a great story to write about. Remember, you have to have some sort of outline inside your mind to begin the process.

Create a name for your series along with a great story that has never been told to enhance the process of thousands of readers finding you and that new book series. Having a unique pen name or using your real name with a little pizzazz added to it will certainly make you stand out as an Author in the Indie Publishing Market.
Pricing A Book Series

If I wrote a book series, for the first series this would be the philosophy I would use to gain readers first and then worry about the sales.

Treat the first book as a loss leader by giving it away perma-free. Second book in the series would be priced either at .99 cents or 1.99. Any other books that followed in the series would be 2.99, which would be a lot of time involved writing the first two books in the series for little return other than a large following of readers. The great thing about the first series is that after the second book story series was developed, I could make more money faster. Reason why? All those readers following me would most likely automatically jump at the chance to buy the books in the second series as quick as they came out.

Two, with the additional perma-free and popularity of the first book series, the second book story series will only increase the fan reader base which will give additional sales. This is what it is all about. Work hard in the beginning to have success in the future. Nothing is gained without some pain.
Will Advertising on the Right Channels Help?

Sure it will. For a beginning Author, perma-free and using the keyword section written earlier in the article will boost sales from the beginning. Time is your great ally. Buying advertisements is good after you reach a certain point of success to continue attracting new readers who might not know about your books or you.

Becoming business wise as well as being a great writing Author are the two most important things in the self-publishing world. Until you master both and use them wisely in what you write and how you market, the chances are lower for success.

(To be continued in Part 4 of – “So, You Wish To Pursue a Indie Author Career?”)

A very wise fellow once told me that the difference between those that work their “A” off and those that don’t are the lines that form around a person’s face from worrying about how they would make it financially each week.
How many times have we heard someone “out there” proclaim they can’t do something because they are broke? It certainly can’t be that they are broke from making a great income but simply because they refuse to manage their money as a tool.
Whether we make a lot of money from book sales or not, it is how you manage what you do take in as revenue that matters. We all should always remember that just because we might have had a great past month that it by no means will be a better month in the future for those profits.

It is one thing to be writing but add the marketing into it and BAM, you are in the retail business. A salesman or lady honing their craft looking for something new to try to do what? Sell More Books! Its a never ending cycle that will never ever let us slow down until one day, finally we find that we can’t do it anymore because of age or health reasons.
It is that hope that gives each one of us the drive to continue to push ourselves each day to be doing something “inside our business.” We do this from our past experiences from working for others. Most of us come from backgrounds where we worked for another person.

A ton of money can be made from writing. In Books, it is finding that successful formula that works. In Freelancing, its finding the right clients to be working for that pay the best on that market. You will find those that can never find that “Secret” to make money in writing. No matter what anyone does, time is a best friend by their side. Whether its writing Ebooks or writing for others, nothing will happen without time invested.
It would be nice if all we had to do was write, publish and repeat. Everything that we touch with keyboard and ink made us rich, famous or both. Anyone can do anything if they invest the time and commit themselves to the task. Very few have taken self-publishing and without due time made any decent money.

This is a marathon and not a sprint. It takes a few years to build any type of business into something successful. Those that jump onboard that think in six months the gold will be there will wake up to realize that they will need more time to progress. They will find out about ‘pain.” Those long nights invested in writing to publish yet another book. The pain of having to market their wares. Between time, pain and throwing in that “learning curve”, most self-publishing writers will be looking at least at a three year window. There is no sugar coating to this. Unless you give it your very best, your chances are going to diminish greatly. Until you invest those “Three Key Parts,” time, pain and the learning curve, it just never happens unless it was a lucky break.

You’re going to need more than sales off of one or two books to make a living with this in the future. The handwriting is on the wall by the sheer number of new books being published monthly. Many people out in the world STILL have no idea that they can write, buy, sell or even read books online yet. As those numbers constantly continue to grow, many will still need more time, increased pain and continuing the learning curve with whatever new changes that book markets like Amazon or the others incorporate.

New Books, many more new Authors entering the field and the tremendous challenges ahead will ensure that all, well most all of us will continue to strive towards that ultimate goal of producing a quality product that sells.

By far one of the toughest challenges anyone will ever take on in life as a career is the self-publishing lifestyle. If you’re one of those recently starting out on the journey then you have already experienced just how hard it can be to write and market those books at the same time.

In the first part of this series, we explored just a small taste of what it is like to pursue this type of career. In this second installment, I’ll give you some inside information to shorten those headaches you probably develop from banging your head against the wall trying to find what works the easiest.

Well my friends, there are few easy solutions to what will work for you to sell thousands of books month after month. Your greatest ally is time. Yes time, because you have more of it than any other resource. What do you do with it? Do you waste yours? Do you invest it in learning? Do you just use all your time writing? Those are great questions to answer for yourself and surely, you can think of some more to ask yourself.

If you are a beginning Author with only a couple of books under your belt, the top advice that can be given is to continue to write more. If you’re writing a second or third book already, you need to be promoting the first one(s). On my site, you can find many ways to promote and market those books. That material comes out of my books published on Amazon. Sure, you can call that a way of marketing. I offer you free advice from material out of my books. By the way, I have another new book coming out soon, “SEO, What’s my Rank?”

If you are looking for ways to market books after you published them, then follow some of the steps listed here. Get you an author website going right away. Add a sign-up form on your landing page to gain an e-mail list of followers so you can reach out to them easier with a newsletter or a new book release. You might not convince everyone to sign but gradually the list will grow.

Many refuse to put all their apples into one cart, with that being going solo with Amazon. I don’t care what anyone else might think. A new Author needs to learn and grow! That being spoken, Amazon has the best platform with the tools and goodies to help. There is too much to overwhelm a new Author trying to self publish on other platforms so that is why I personally recommend Amazon alone.

Over time, you can always move books to other self-publishing outlets or publish new ones over the various others. I guarantee you that the bulk of your sales will come from Amazon. Another thing that will help you is to keep track of everything that you do with each book.

Make you a chart sheet to record the Title, blurb information, publish date, etc. Include on this chart, all the sites that your book is listed online. You see, if you have a handy little chart like this on each book, it makes it much easier to reference all the information on that book in nanoseconds. This is great for when you need it in a spur of the moment to post the information on a site for a free book promo or to publish through a paid ad. It keeps you from having to open several sites at once trying to gather the information.

Seek out all the places or sites that readers are going to in search of what your book is about. That means you are looking for that reader audience where they congregate. If your book is a fiction novel, you want to scour the universal web for those readers in hopes of grabbing attention on your book. If it is a non-fiction book about cooking with recipes, you will be looking for those readers at websites about food preparation, cooking cuisine, etc. On the Internet, the sky is the limit because the web is never-ending.

You might find many opportunities to guest blog a post on a site once you randomly begin to seek out those marketing venues for your books. Most everyone that has a decent size following on their sites offer guest blogging to Authors in the hope that it helps bring more visitors to their websites.

Try to spend at least one hour each day marketing your books in some shape, way or form. You might spend it one day commenting on a few sites. The next day you could spend it on social media. The following day you could spend it on Author or book forums commenting on posts. These little things help establish you as an Author. Bookbuzzr is a great place to use to gain additional exposure for your books. Nifty tools there to help you get sales on your books. For a small monthly fee of a few bucks, you have an arsenal at your fingertips to help you in your marketing tactics.

It has already been mentioned in past post on my site about offering a new book free and the sites are there written on a post if you will do your research. Doing a little preplanning before a free promotion can net you a lot of free downloads of your book. Many sites request advanced noticed before posting your free promo. The negative side of the free promotion is the possibility of getting one star reviews but if you are so fearful of reviews, why bother to publish? At one time, the free promotion could net an Author with many sales. That isn’t the case now but still many new Authors are finding decent sales after a free promo run on a new book.

Using all social media outlets will help you market your name, brand and those books that you write. Use them all, from twitter to Tumblr, from linkedin to pin-it, from your website to other websites. There are so many opportunities out there now to use media to get the word out about you and your books and by not taking advantage of it all is just like throwing it away.

A remarkable opportunity is a book series. It is the hot item going today to make an unknown into a well known. The secret? Making the first book in the series perma-free. I don’t know how long this marketing strategy will continue to succeed as many more Authors are finding it the key that unlocks the door to their success.

Alright, We covered a lot here. So, what is Social media? Goodreads, Twitter, facebook, google+, yahoo, linkedin, tumblr, etc. Next we have Content media, which is? They are Press releases, articles, guest posts, book bloggers, etc.

Those two, Social and Content go directly hand in hand with your website. That website is your Author Platform base. You are gaining an email list of followers to your site as an addition through hits. Your website is the foundation or house that supports everything else that you do. Now then, we are finally getting somewhere on what it takes to sell books.

I’ll continue this series later so look forward to it. All of my books are listed on Amazon and my site. You have to market every way possible. Have a nice weekend!

Nothing is quite as sweet in the Indie Publishing World than having happy readers. The great thing about them is if you please them once, they’re more inclined to buy another book from you in the future!
That’s the great thing about your customers. They show their love and loyalty to you when you please them. They also have this delightful manner of obtaining referral customers for you by emails and word of mouth.
To earn this repeat business from past readers, offer them more quality and value in any future books you write to publish. Earn that extra word of mouth and Internet referral business by doing the things that you have learned in the past.

If you know who some of your readers are, email them, phone them in person or just target an article on your website to them and ask them to tell their friends about you and your books. This is a great referral opportunity for you as a publisher to reach out to those readers that love what you do and ask them for a little tenderness.

Always treat your loyal readers with love, loyalty, devotion, consideration and professionalism. That will always keep them happy and satisfied. The more satisfied your reader’s stay, the more satisfied readers you’ll gain in the future.

Satisfied readers not only buy your books but they are one of your greatest allies in selling more books!
That is a powerful sentence written above! It deserves to be repeated again!
“Satisfied readers not only buy your books but they are one of your greatest allies in selling more books!” It runs a complete circle around their friends and right back to you in more books sales! Now how nifty is that?

You see the image above? Yes, my image with my money but used here for the pupose to drill into you a business sense to make sure you’re doing everything that you can to make those customers happy. Those customers being the ones that buy a product, service or book from you!

In the business environment, the only way to make it work is by top quality customer service. That goes into any type of business enviroment. Oh, but I’m only an author writing books someone might say. Think again! If you write to publish books online to sell, then you are a business. You’re also the manager and ceo of said business.

Not everyone knows who their readers or customers are that buy books from them. Yes you do! They leave reviews about your books, you may be talking to customers who buy your books on book forums. People that like you on FB or follow you on twitter might be some of your customers. They might be on a email sign-up form from your website.

Always find time to thank your customers for purchasing from you. In closing this article, here is a great way to thank them without lifting a finger. At the end of a book, Always leave a sentence or two explaining to them how grateful you are to them for purchasing one of your books.

You never know, they just might buy another one from you! Have a nice week.

Many Authors look for every opportunity to promote their books and their names. The Select program at Amazon giving away a new published book is still a good way to get exposure. Rather than spend hours searching for those site links, I thought I would post some of them here from one of my books so others would have a copy too.
Some of these sites need to know in advance when the free promo is scheduled, so do your homework and check out each one before you set up your promotion. Those free book promotions still work if you have a fantastic story to read so never give up and use all promotional opportunities.

Want more exposure for your name, books and website or blog? Read on. Article Write and submit those articles to the many sites on the web. Great way for you to build an additional following by readers who will love the articles you wrote that they read.

Just like your books, make sure that the articles are spelled correctly and good grammar basics are followed. Most of the sites accept articles on a variety of content. Those articles can be anywhere from 400 words up to 2000 word articles.

Writing great article content can bring you more sales of those books but you never will know what you’re missing if you won’t give it a try. Here are many sites that you can write articles for submission. These sites let you sign up and your website or blog with your books are where those readers come to if they like the content you write.

The above will get you on a good start if you consider using that option. There is still other ways to help gain sales of books. The above are only a few ways to market your products or books to people and readers. In the future, I may post other ways to gain readers.
Have a great holiday weekend!

Do you use power words or the correct key words in your sales copy? I bet some of you hardly give the subject of key wording or power words any attention. If you wish to make sales of your products or services, you better study this topic intently.
It’s true, 99.9 percent of those that use proper Key Wording, and Power Words make more money than those who think they are doing it effectively. What do the best Internet Marketers have in common? They all have an effective sales page to promote their products! Most of them research Key Words and Power Words that best fit the description for their particular product and insert them into their sales pitch or promotional page.
Whether it’s for books or for a system to make money, many Marketers are two steps ahead of the game when it comes to promoting the product effectively. These people have learned how to take it to the next level when writing those sales letters and promotional methods.
Any Product or service you might sell can be a make or break of making a sale just by your sales pitch or letter. That’s why you need to do your research and pick the most effective Power Words and Key Words to insert into your promotional page. For those of you to take notice, Power Words and Key Words are inserted into this first chapter here in this little book.
Have you taken a moment to notice them? Can you locate them without a hint? What does the phrase “I’m about to reveal to you” really mean? The answer is simple! It’s an explanation that the Marketing Professional is going to explain in detail just what you will receive from their product. People are attracted to brand new products or services. Since new is synonymous with excitement, words such as “excitement’ and “hot” are good draws for advertising new products.
Products or services available for a limited time would have words in the sales copy related to words such as “direct,” “limited,” “immediately,” expressing urgency to buy the product now. Let’s use an example here. You just wrote a fantastic brand new fiction novel that you are going to sell online. In your sales pitch to promote your unknown novel, what do you think would be most important in drawing interest to that new book?
If you answered that with your book description, you’re correct but what helps increase the likelihood of getting a sale from that description? The answer is properly wording the description with Power Words and Key Words so more people are drawn into clicking on the “Look Inside” feature to read more about that new novel you wrote. You could write a best seller or already have one written online. That novel might be losing sales just by the description you written for the book. It’s true!
Always take a hard look at your book description page and make sure you made the most of it by inserting Power Words and Key Words in that description which really is a sales pitch to promote interest in that novel! Another area many fail to think about is the cover image on that book. You should always be sure to Key Word that image in the tags before you upload it to Amazon to make it is enriched with words that will bring customers to your site from their word searches. Beginning with your first chapter or prologue of your book, insert Keywords and Phrases to draw interest in that novel.
With the amount of books around today, every effort you achieve to promote yourself and your work will only increase the amount of sales you can make. Did you know that almost 92 percent of sales are made within the retail industry when the product goes on sale for a reduced price?
People are conditioned to wait for a product to go on sale before they make the purchase to buy. What Power Words can you think of right this moment to use as a sales copy to promote your product to entice that customer to buy? Using words like “Only,” “Discount,” “New” and “Special” come to mind very quickly.
Then you can add in the phrase “Huge discount special, this week only!” Do you see the power in that Power Word Phrase? If you are into mass media marketing, could you use that phrase in the promotion of your product on such avenues as twitter or Facebook?
The answer to that is absolutely! You want to use the best Words and Phrases you can possibly come up with to get the customer’s valuable attention on your product. So what do you have to do in order to find great Key Words?
Find a great Key Word Suggestion program that gives you the best words based on what people are searching for. A good one to use is http://ubersuggest.org
Easy to use and produces some great keyword results. This keyword research tool is renowned for its ability to pull data from all the major search engines along with getting information from the less popular ones. It is probably next only to the Google Keyword Tool in terms of its usage and popularity.
Remember, every little thing that you can do helps in marketing. I hope that this information provided to you is extremely helpful as well as opening your mind to the possibility of finding another avenue to increase your book sales. As always, you’re welcome to comment or send me a personal email at http://bookmaster007@hotmail.com

Writing books, and marketing can take up huge amounts of time. Most that take on the challenge of Indie Self-Publishing never realize what is involved in the process. I was talking to someone the other day. They agreed that it can be one of the toughest jobs on the planet. They also told me that once you become established by building your brand that the opportunities are endless. I tend to agree with them on that.

Last year, I published nine books under my name. I have another one to publish shortly. Here is the cover and title for my latest book on Search Engine Optimization.

Here are the covers for the others below.

There is one thing that you have to have in this business, and that is plenty of drive to continue the process. Some of you have heard it before, “Rinse and Repeat.” My goal for this year is to publish at least 20 books which would double my output in 2013. My time was limited during the past year due to a variety of issues. This year, nothing stands in the way of completing that goal.

Many feel overwhelmed once they get into Self-Publishing, but if they take the time to learn as they continue to write the process becomes easier. The great thing about it is that once you have a back-list to continue to build on, it makes you more reputable to others.

As this New Year continues to unfold, More books will be added to my back-list. Maybe by the time July rolls around, I can take a needed two week break from it all to rest on vacation. That remains to be seen as I’m always focused on the goals that I set for myself. To be able to be given this opportunity to self publish by a great company like Amazon is a dream that I cherish each day.

The purpose in this thread post is to give hope to others that might not feel as though they are doing well in this business. I’m here to tell you that it takes time and commitment in order to succeed. Keep pushing forward while learning all that you can about Self-Publishing. You just might find that that ship you’re sailing on isn’t going to sink with you on-board after all.

Yes, we have all heard this before, but how many of us follow what will work? It can be a tough job writing, and getting our books ready to publish. Having the marketing issue to deal with makes the process that much tougher.
Not only do we have to market that freshly published new book, but also we have to keep the wheels turning by writing that next book. How are we supposed to do all of this in so many hours per day?
Many follow the 80/20 rules. Eighty percent means writing and the other twenty percent is given to the marketing process. With the fierce competition in the marketplace these days, it makes sense to devote as much time as possible to marketing.
Now some Authors are using 70/30 rules to the process. I think 2014 will be much tougher than 2013 because of the ever-increasing amount of books published. Things will continue to tighten as the year unfolds.
For those with quite a few books on the storefront, the increased time devoted to marketing make good business sense. Part of my New Year goals was to implement more time to marketing. I decided to go with 65/35 rules since I have a backlist of books published. New Authors with one or two books have to go less with marketing to devote more time writing.
So many ways exist to market books that it is insane. Blog forums, mailing lists, blogs, websites, writing articles, paid ads, free ads, free promos and advertised to the free promotion sites, perma-free first book in a series, guest interviews on blogs and social media outlets like twitter or facebook. Don’t forget Linked-In or sites to make money doing freelance writing.
A few must below. You need to be in front of those readers on these sites.
Ereader News Today: http://www.ereadernewstoday.com/
Kindle Nation: http://kindlenationdaily.com/
Pixel of Ink: http://www.pixelofink.com
Inspired Reads: http://www.inspiredreads.com
Kindle Reader: http://kindlereader.blogspot.com/
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com
IndieReader: http://indiereader.com/author-promotional-opportunities/

Make sure you use good keywords in the blurbs. Do a word search on what readers are looking for and place the top keywords or phrases in your seven keywords when you upload your new books.
Everywhere your footsteps are on the web should leave your marks for people to follow you home. This means placing your website link into your signature so when you leave comments at other sites, those people might find their way directly back to your website or blog.
The prices of your books make a huge impact on sales. Don’t place a 4.99 price on a 15-page book! It just can’t happen, unless it is a new formula that makes money out of thin air.
Price books accordingly. .99-cent eBooks sell if marketing is used correctly. A 150,000-word novel priced at 2.99 is a good selling price if the story is a great one that captivates a reader audience. Books priced higher than 2.99 still gain sales if they are higher in word count.
Many Authors are now finding success with books with a lower word count such as 15,000 to 20,000-word count. When it comes to self-publishing, you never know what will work unless you try it.
The wise words “Think outside the box,” are so true when it comes to each individual writer or author. If you are having problems with sales, try something else until you find what works. Once you find that formula, rinse and repeat it until the sizzle begins to fizzle.
The problem with success is that Authors will tell the world what worked for them, and then you have a flood of others repeating that process. Very soon, you have everyone cashing in on what worked for that one Author. This is why you will always have to find ways to keep those wheels turning.
No matter what your current formula for success is, one day you will have to implement another new strategy to stay competitive in the self-publishing game. You have to keep writing, stay on a smart marketing formula and continue to learn new ways to get those books in front of millions of readers.

Recently, I was doing some research for another possible new book in the future. Many Indie Authors are figuring out their own way and producing quite remarkable results indeed.

One Author does their marketing in this manner;
Uses 3 pen names.
Publish across all retailers.
Writes in BBW werewolf romance and psuedo-incest.
Writes new stories each month and uploads them to the platforms.
Writes in series, probably making the first one perma-free.
Prices those books according to length, from .99 – 9.99, books are in 3,000 to 150,00 word count.
Uses paid advertising.

You notice a system in the above? Sure you can see it. Multiple Author Pen Names with many Titles listed under each one makes more sales. Of course, the paid ads put those books in front of readers. The Author uses the book series formula, making the first book free to hook the readers into buying the rest of the series.

Another Author found his way with this;
Writes what they love to write about.
An Active Facebook Page, website and a mailing list.
Uses newsletters to find new readers such as BookBub, BookBlast, etc.
Writes in Series because that is where the most sales originate.
Released a new novel every two months to keep that boost going.
Priced books 2.99-3.99 range.

Here, I laid out examples of two successful Authors basically using the same formula. No need in making this post any longer. By the way, did you learn anything?